


take to the streets, bus terminals

by maranhig



Category: Original Work
Genre: Free Verse, Other, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-05-25
Packaged: 2018-04-01 03:09:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4003561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maranhig/pseuds/maranhig
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a snapshot of life at a filipino public transport. twice removed from misery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	take to the streets, bus terminals

**Author's Note:**

> had to write this for one of my college papers. i wish there was a way to focus on the plight of the people talked about here, rather than my damaged middle-class sympathies, but i don't know how to do that. i doubt that anyone does.

it’s on a busy thursday afternoon that you  
show me how the proud  
curve of your mountain spine collapses  
and form stairs that are trampled on  
walked all over  
just in the space of a heartbeat.

you bare your scar tissue and  
gentle organs to me alongside garlands  
of grapes and apples warmed by the  
sun in the hopes earning of a few pesos  
but all i could give you were  
my sympathies and a downcast _no_.

there is nothing new about your  
plight because i have seen worse we  
have always seen worse in these places  
where taxis and air-conditioned buses  
ramble alongside starving children and laboring  
elderly like you by now i’ve run out of tears to shed.


End file.
